NXP, formerly Philips Semiconductors, is said to be considering leaving the Crolles 2 Alliance for IC R&D, and IBM or TSMC are being considered as possible replacements.
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The first effects of the private equity takeovers of NXP and Freescale are being seen with questions raised over the future participation of the companies in the Crolles 2 alliance for IC R&D at Grenoble.
The partners are STMicroelectronics, NXP and Freescale. NXP is the one which may pull out before the end of this year, to be replaced, say sources, by either IBM or TSMC.
At the time of the NXP buy-out it was said that the move would not affect the company’s spending budget on R&D.
The chairman of the pan-European R&D project, MEDEA+, Arthur van der Poel, recently said he had reassured the EU authorities about the takeovers of Freescale and NXP and had said they should continue to be supported by EU R&D initiatives.
It is thought that Freescale, which currently fabs 80 per cent of its output in-house, will pursue a manufacturing out-sourcing policy to cut costs.
If NXP goes fab-lite, as NXP has done, it will inevitably lead to questions about how far it needs to go in pursuing basic IC process R&D.
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